The very first known contact with Native Americans was Christopher Columbus’ momentous mistake. However, his misguided venture changed the lives of Europeans and Natives alike; most importantly the Spanish missionary movement. As seen in the picture, Columbus comes in gallant and triumphant in his new found conquest while the “Indian” so named, looks like a wild man that bows down to the “obvious” sophistication and “Christian” ideal that Columbus is portrayed as. This dominant train of thought was seen by the Spanish as a mandate from God to convert these poor, wretched, savage, and condemned souls who lack any sort of governmental structure (all according to Columbus of course). This drawing with its assumptions permeated the thoughts of Europeans and future Colonists in the years to come.

Native American conversion was a common goal of the inhabitants of the colonies. They stressed acceptance and love but when a Native professed to be a Christian they were segregated by the very ones who helped lead to their conversion. Not only were they outsiders in white society as Christians but also in their very own tribes to which they belonged. Having no commonality of acceptance in the societies in which they exist, these Indian Christians struggled in life. These actions by white colonists revealed the hypocrisy of their self proclaimed ideals and hindered many attempts at converting the natives.

The conflicts that Christianity imposed on converted Native Americans undeniably changed their identity as a whole resulting in two separate beings in one. One half identified himself as an Indian, despite being considered a "sellout" as the text so names it and another as a Christian, working out his faith. Conflict can be said to either bring out the best or worst in a person but what does this mean for the people who proclaim to be so holy and loving and yet scorn those who do not share the same colored skin and oppress those who do not share the same beliefs as the dominant faith in the society (in this case a white, Puritan one).